1 I have seen something else unfair here on earth. It causes serious problems for people.
2 God gives some people great wealth, riches and honor. They have everything they want. But God does not let them enjoy such things. Someone else enjoys them instead. This is unfair and senseless.
3 It is sad when a person can’t enjoy the good things God gives him. Such a person might have 100 children. He might live a long time. But what good is it if he can’t enjoy the good God gives him? I say a baby who is born dead is better off than he is.
4 It is useless for such a baby to be born. It ends up in the darkness of the grave without even a name.
5 That baby never saw the sun. It never knew anything. But it finds more rest than the person who never gets to enjoy the good things God gives him.
6 Even if he lives 2,000 years, it is sad if a person can’t enjoy the good things God gives him. After all, both he and the baby born dead go to the same place—the grave.
7 A person works just to feed himself.But he never seems to get enough to eat.
8 In this way a wise manis no better off than a foolish person.Then, too, it does a poor man little goodto know how to get along in life.
9 So it is better to be happy with what you havethan always to be wanting more.Always wanting more is useless—like chasing the wind.
10 Everything that happens was planned long ago.A man is only what he was created to be.It is useless to argue with God about it.This is because God is more powerful than man is.
11 The more you argue,the more useless it is.You gain nothing at all by arguing.
12 A person has only a few days of life on the earth. His short life passes like a shadow. And who knows what is best for him while he lives? Who can tell him what will happen after his time on earth?